the light that you left me
by Mia-Zeklos
Summary: On New Year's Eve, Alec and Jace have the Institute to themselves.


**Notes: Written in about half an hour, so not very well proofread, as you can imagine, but still something I wanted to share. I hope you guys enjoy it nevertheless and... Happy New Year, whether it's come for you yet or not! ;3 May it be an amazing one.**

The Institute was quieter than it had ever been in recent memory. It wasn't like Alec hadn't expected it, really, but it was still _unusual_ ; just enough for him to stand a little on edge despite the knowledge of just how spotless their security's work usually was.

He and Jace were in his office, his parabatai's bandaged arm resting on the desk in front of him. He'd been instructed not to move it too much and it was easy to see why – he winced every time he tried to turn around.

"You could have gone out with Izzy, you know," he said now, his good hand fiddling with the paperwork strewn over Ale's desk. He was staring out of the window and Alec knew that he likely regretted not being able to do that himself, but there wasn't much that could be done. "You don't need to stay here because of me."

"I'm sure she and Clary are doing _great_ all on their own," Alec scoffed. He actually suspected that they would have preferred it that way and they weren't the only ones – if he was brutally honest with himself, he'd have to admit that he wasn't just being a good parabatai when he'd decided to stay with Jace when he'd been hurt on the eve of the new year. "And I'm fine here, really. We'd have spent it together anyway."

"All on _our_ own." As always, he and Jace seemed to be on the same page despite the numerous differences in their ways of thinking. "Well played."

"Half of your arm is covered in demon acid," Alec said, incredulousness creeping into his voice. "I didn't _plan_ this."

"Oh, so I guess it was all in my han—"

Alec cut off the terrible pun with a kiss before Jace had even had the time to say it – he'd tried to turn this into a joke a few times too many today and his patience was starting to run dry, especially given the source of the injury.

"The next time something that spits venom at us tries to have a go at me," he said, pulling away just slightly so that he could look his parabatai in the eye, "you could just let me deal with it instead of stepping right in front of it _unarmed_."

"I will always step in between you and something like that," Jace responded with just as much conviction in his voice as Alec had expected him to. It was frustrating, really, but not something he would ever give up. That was what they _were_ , after all; it was this exact mutual willingness to sacrifice everything in the blink of an eye for each other that made them such a good match in every way imaginable. "Unarmed or not. And you know that I had a second blade, it was just that I didn't have the time—"

"I know," Alec said and took Jace's undamaged hand in his own to pull him up to his feet. "Come on, it's almost midnight. Wouldn't want to miss the mundanes having fun, would you?"

"I still can't understand why we can't have our own fireworks," Jace said, but followed him easily enough to watch Alec unlock the door that led to the rooftop. He had expected this, obviously, and it wasn't difficult to tell why: they had spent far too many nights up here for far too many reasons and New Year's Eve was just one of them that had never happened before. "It's not like the mundanes can see."

The past few years, they had either been on patrol or trailing behind Izzy as she found one Downworlder party or another where they could easily join in. It was Alec's first celebration as Head of the Institute and he had unofficially let everyone who wasn't on patrol slink out of the building a few hours ago if they wanted to. Now the Institute felt like what it had once been – a cathedral – with its silent rooms and long, empty hallways and Jace had rarely felt more at home in it than he did right now.

"There's still no reason for us to attack unnecessary attention to ourselves," Alec said. Jace _knew_ that already, of course, but it wasn't the first time he brought it up despite that, even more sceptical than Alec of the sightless people's ability to notice _anything_ in the night sky that they were supposed to. "Come on," he urged and shivered at the sudden gust of cold wind that washed over them. "I think it's almost time."

Jace sat down on the nearest bench next to him and leant his head on his shoulder readily as soon as they'd settled down. The main sentiment coming through their bond was one of calm and an edge of exhaustion after the day they'd had and it was infectious – it made Alec feel just as content and weightless as his parabatai did.

It had been a long year. He wasn't sure what their future held, didn't dare to be sure of anything at all anymore, but here, right now, it didn't even matter. It felt _good_ to be so careless for once; to not worry about every single thing that his mind was occupied with on a daily basis and to just be able to focus on this – his parabatai in his arms, happy and relaxed and already healing from their most recent mission.

Alec snapped out of the dreamstate he'd been starting to slip in by the first fireworks in the clear sky; explosions of light that covered his field of vision from horizon to horizon as the night came alive in front of him. Before he'd had the chance to take it all in, Jace reached up, his fingers trailing over his lips and shifting enough so that he could kiss him. He'd pressed their bodies together with everything he had and Alec found himself laughing as he leant against the wall behind him, his own hand tangling up in his parabatai's hair to bring him even closer.

"Happy New Year, Alec," he said and when Alec looked up, every colour of the night sky was still imprinted in his parabatai's eyes.


End file.
